Someone might have met the Oniscus under its standard embodiment, the so-called “armadillo bug”. Sure enough, that creature will never be able to produce exceptional drones like the Oniscus Harmonicus, one of the versions of a stringed instrument manufactured by Costantino Kiriakos (played with a bow, contrabass-style) which constitutes the unaccompanied sonic origin for this outstanding album.

The title is a made-up Italian term merging three words, translatable as “Sun On The Ground”. If you wish to associate an idea of luminance, be careful to do that exclusively in the immaterial acceptation. These eleven tracks are in fact pitch-black and cheerless, based on austere melodic gestures surrounded by an abundance of upper partials that, in a staggering entirety, find delicate spots in the gamut of our sensory activity. We have oftentimes chronicled our passionateness for Mohammad; the trio of Coti, Nikos Veliotis and Ilios is a sum of both tactile and nonphysical components whose summoning power is impossible to correctly depict in a mere writeup. However, the correspondence between the vibrational impact of the bowed lower ranges and the frequencies connected to the motility of our consciousness is undeniable: in this particular context we can easily appreciate the extent of Kiriakos’ share within that monolithic texture, his music owning a feel of doleful cognizance equal, or even superior, to that of the band. If anything, here we can observe a (very slight) touch of additional “humanness”, a sort of acoustic metabolism not always visible – but existing nonetheless – in the glacially breathtaking perspectives of disconsolateness shown by Veliotis and Ilios in their latest solo releases on this same label. As a general rule, this and the aforesaid experiences are mandatory for any watchful individual dismissive of arcane wordings underscoring collective rituals of human despair, illusions of “help” turning into an actuality of dead loneliness. In this place we’re talking about the serious development of sound-related interior faculties, miles and miles away from babbling hoaxers.

Come think of it, these artists typify an indispensable nucleus transmitting consistently profound messages to the subconscious mind. As well as whatever else they do – alone or jointly – Solesulsuolo is essential listening, an enriching experience from the first minute to the last. I strongly recommend to pick up everything put on CD by the cavaliers from Greece in recent years to complete a tremendous cycle of silently grieving “holding inside”, guaranteed to make you grow stronger.